10 things you might not know about North Korea

Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer

North Korea is an international pariah, a bandit state, the "Hermit Kingdom." It's also a net exporter of news: North Korea announced Friday that it had detained an American citizen for "hostile acts against the republic." And a rocket launch this month was widely denounced as provocative. Here are 10 facts that managed to get out of the country:

1 The Korean War ended in 1953, right? Nope. An armistice was signed by the U.S.-led United Nations command, China and North Korea — but not by South Korea. That document established a truce "until a final peaceful settlement is achieved." But none ever was, leaving the combatants technically still at war.

2 The history of North Korea can be summarized in three words: Kim, Kim and Kim. The first leader of the communist North, Kim Il Sung, is considered "Eternal President" 18 years after his death. His son, Kim Jong Il, known as "Dear Leader," was ruler until he died last year. Now in charge is son Kim Jong Un, aka "Outstanding Leader." The Kims' cult of personality is demonstrated by an incident last June in which a 14-year-old girl drowned while trying to save portraits of the first two leaders during a flood. She was praised as a national heroine, with pledges to rename her school in her honor.

3 The quality of life in North Korea has been so bad for so long that its people are now physically different from their South Korean cousins. A Seoul National University study published in 2005 found that northern young men were on average 2.3 inches shorter and young women 2.6 shorter. Another study found an even wider gap — nearly 5 inches — among children.

4 Despite its dismal record on many issues, North Korea is credited with an excellent literacy rate. The CIA's World Factbook lists that rate as 99 percent but notes the estimate is two decades old. (North Korea is unlikely to invite the CIA for a fact-finding visit to update its statistics.) But even if literacy remains top-notch, censorship severely limits what's available to read.

5 North Korea announced plans to build the world's tallest building. But the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang has taken so long to construct — 25 years — that it missed out on the honor, surpassed by two taller hotels that were started and finished in Dubai in the last few years. North Korea's rocket-shaped tower, scheduled to finally open in 2013, has been labeled by Esquire magazine as "the worst building in the history of mankind."

6 A country known for famine and forced-labor camps also features something cheerier: golf. The North Korea Amateur Open last May attracted a smattering of foreign tourists. And Kim Jong Un's wife, Ri Sol Ju, was introduced to the public in July when the couple visited a miniature golf course. Like many Western golfers, North Korean duffers are prone to exaggeration: A golf pro at the nation's only course claimed Kim Jong Il once shot five holes-in-one during a single round.

7 If you want to learn more about North Korea, just visit. Yes, despite being a member of the "Axis of Evil," North Korea accepts American tourists, if only a few thousand annually. Recently, Radio Free Asia reported that tourist visas were being approved in days instead of weeks. That said, the U.S. State Department offers up a lengthy warning to would-be tourists, noting among other things that it is a criminal act to show disrespect to the country's former or current leaders, and that unauthorized picture taking or talking to the locals can be construed as espionage.

8 More than half of North Korean men smoke, a rate double that in the U.S., according to World Health Organization figures. The Pyongyang government has tried for a decade to get people to quit, but the campaign was not helped by a photo just this month of Kim Jong Un puffing away after the infamous rocket launch. (The nation apparently has cashed in on smoking: It has a reputation as an international counterfeiter of cigarette brands such as Marlboro, Dunhill and Benson & Hedges.)

9 Movie director Shin Sang Ok, known as "the Orson Welles of South Korea," found his studio shuttered when he got crossways with the South's government. But he was treated even worse by the North, which dispatched agents to kidnap him in 1978. Ordered to produce propaganda films for the North, he refused and was thrown in prison, where he ate grass to survive. After five years, he was released from prison, lavished with luxuries and allowed to make the movies he wanted. Even so, he eventually escaped. He later conceded, though, that he made his best film while in the North.

10 Kim Jong Un's succession to leadership may have been eased when another candidate who was his half-brother embarrassed the family. Kim Jong Nam was caught in 2001 trying to enter Japan on a fake Dominican Republic passport. His suspected destination: Tokyo's version of Disneyland.

Mark Jacob is a deputy metro editor at the Tribune; Stephan Benzkofer is the Tribune's weekend editor.